| Question Title | Posted By | Question Date |
|---|---|---|
| Metaphysics and St. Thomas Aquinas | Irene | Saturday, May 14, 2011 |
Question: I know very little about metaphysics, except, rightly or wrongly, that it is a branch of philosophy. However, I was reading that there are metaphysical aspects to the Catholic faith and that St. Thomas Aquinas contributed to this understanding in his "philosophy of religion". |
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| Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r)
Dear Irene: I praise God that you desire to remove any erroneous thinking inconsistent with the Catholic Church. The best way for you to be sure your thinking is in line with the Catholic Church is to get a copy of the Catechism and read it. There are multiple indexes in the back so that you can look things up be theme or scripture verse. A second way to help is to ask specific questions here on issues that you wish to understand or check. As far as metaphysics is concerned, that topic is far too complicated to deal with thoroughly in this forum. Thus, I will be brief. The term Metaphysics is misused by new agers to refer to anything that is outside of objective experience as defined by their spiritism, mediumship, and other occult beliefs an practices. While metaphysics does involve questions of that which is outside of objective experience, the new ager's use of the word is improper. A basic dictionary definition (from Merriam-Webster) (1) : a division of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being and that includes ontology, cosmology, and often epistemology (2) : ontology (the study of being). Metaphysics seeks to answer questions such as: What does it mean to be a human being? Of course, the answers to these questions will greatly differ depending upon what worldview on has. The new ager answers these questions differently than a Christian. A close cousin to metaphysics must be the nature of Truth. Since metaphysics deals with being and existence beyond the objective we cannot rely upon science. To ensure a true understanding we must rely upon that person who himself is beyond all material existence -- God. To ensure we have the correct understanding of God, we need to rely upon his Divine Revelation of Himself as found in the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition. To ensure what we the genuine Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition, and that we interpret them correctly, God has given us his Church, the Catholic Church. Thus, the only way to ensure a correct metaphysics is to do so through the teachings and worldview of the Catholic Church. The specifics of metaphysics in philosophical language is very technical and complicated. Unless one wishes to study philosophy, getting into that technical discussion will only confuse people. The simplest metaphysical answers to the questions above is to look at a Baltimore Catechism. The first ten questions in the Baltimore Catechism #2 answers the essential metaphysical questions:
The current Catechism of the Catholic Church (to buy or see online version) does into much more detail. That is where you need to begin. As you study the catechism you can return here to ask specific questions about issues you are wondering about, or to check your own thinking about something (or join the Chew the Rag Café to be able to discuss the issues in more depth). God Bless,
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